Sam's Return
by fandomgirlforeva
Summary: Sam Manson has been gone from Amity Park for 10 years after an explosive fight with her parents, and Danny. But now she's forced to return after tragedy strikes and she has to collect her belongings from her parents' old house. She tries to go unnoticed by the people of her past, but she isn't so lucky.
1. Chapter 1

Sam Manson drove into the urban town of Amity Park and sighed to herself. Never, in a million years, did she think she would come back to her miserable hometown. But, her parents had both just passed and that left her with the house and the fortune that they had accumulated doing who knows what since they never actually told Sam what they did. So now, she was forced to return to Amity Park to sort through their belongings, sell the house, and get the hell out of Amity Park before anyone from her past saw her.

When Sam pulled up to the old house that she spent 18 years of her life in, she couldn't help but remember everything that had happened before she left. The graduation, the big fight with Danny and Tucker that left them as strangers when she went to college, the fight with her parents that kept her away for the past 10 years, and the sad look that she and Danny shared as she drove out of Amity Park for what she had wished would be the last time. From the social media page of Jazz Fenton, now Jazz Baxter, Danny and Tucker still live in Amity Park but that was really all Sam needed to know to know to get done with this house as soon as possible so she could get away from the ghost-filled town.

Sam popped the trunk on her car and got out the boxes that she would fill with any of the belongings she wanted to keep, and she would leave everything else for the realtor after she was gone. But when she walked in, she remembered all the fun times she had with her friends here. Watching movies, cuddling in her room with Danny when he snuck in, researching ghosts that they hadn't met before, and laughing and having fun. She even remembered when she told them that she was going to Harvard for Environmental Law. At the time, they had been really excited for her, and then she and Danny had got in the horrible fight about their relationship, and Tucker sided with Danny as always, so she broke off her and Danny's relationship, and her and Tucker's friendship and left. She hated the way they left things, even 10 years later she still had an ache in her gut when she thought of it. But there was nothing she could do about it, most likely the two would never forgive her and they had probably already moved on and either forgotten about her or have been hating her all these years.

Sam started piling pictures and trinkets into the boxes and tried to expel thoughts about her old friends, even as she packed up pictures of all of them together on their first days of school throughout the years. Ever since they became friends in first grade they would take pictures on the first day of school at one of their houses no matter how much their parents might not like each other at some point or another. She smiled to herself as she watched their progression from their little years to their last year of high school, and she couldn't help but let a few tears out because of how much closer she could tell her and Danny got compared to when they were young. In their first picture together all three of them weren't even touching each other and instead stood kind of awkwardly on the steps of their school, but on the first day of senior year Danny's arm was around her waist while her head rested on his shoulder and Tucker was doing something funny and weird on Danny's other side. She had left these pictures here to try and forget them, but it was almost worse seeing them all once now than looking at them every day because all of the memories hit her like bricks. Even the pictures of her and her parents hurt because even with all of the animosity in her relationship with them, somewhere deep down she loved them and missed them now that they were taken so abruptly.

Two months ago, she was surprised when she got the call from the doctor in the next town over from Amity Park about her parents getting hit by a car on the way back from going to a restaurant. They had been brought to the hospital, and put into comas, but after a month Sam pulled the plug and they officially died. Now, she was left to deal with their stuff, and was walking down a very painful memory lane. But right as she finished with the living room her phone went off and she stood up to check it. _Hey Sam, I saw your Snapchat map and it said you're in town. I'd like to meet_. Sam really never thought she'd hear from Jazz again, especially after what happened with her brother, but against her better judgement she responded to Jazz.

 _Hey Jazz, I'd love to meet up with you. Just plz, don't tell your brother._

Jazz's reply was almost instant. _I wouldn't do that to you, my lips are sealed. I'll meet you at Nasty Burger in 10 minutes._

Sam surveys her progress before shrugging on her black trenchcoat and making her way to her car so she could drive to Nasty Burger. The problem with Amity Park, was that they didn't have a lot of restaurants even though they had a lot of people. So Nasty Burger was pretty much the only place that both teenagers and adults hung out, so it was always busy. The streets, unfortunately, were just the same. Sam was terrified that every car she saw contained someone from her past, but luckily, most of them were either teenagers that didn't know her, or older adults that hadn't cared to know her because she was a punk goth when she lived there. Now, she still wore black, but it was with accents of other colors. She even wore white once and a while just because she was more comfortable with her style than she was when she was a teenager. But today, since it was more of a somber day, she wore a simple black dress, a black trench coat, and ankle high black boots that weren't actually her combat boots. Her thick black hair fell in natural waves to about the middle of her back, and her make up was mainly just thin winged eyeliner, and mascara. Sam didn't think she was overly beautiful, like Paulina had been in college, but she definitely could turn at least a few heads of decent looking men.

When Sam arrives at Nasty Burger, it was easy to pick Jazz out because she was sitting at their old booth, and her bright orange hair stuck out from the blonde, brunette, and black. As Sam approaches Jazz smiles brightly and greets her with a hug, that was sort of awkward because of Jazz's protruding belly. When they parted Sam looks from Jazz's face to her stomach and back again and raises an eyebrow. Jazz laughs, "yes, I'm pregnant Sam. Third kid now, hopefully a girl since I've had two boys already."

The two women sit down and Jazz signals for their waitress to come back over, and Sam was shocked to say the least when she showed up. " _Paulina!?_ "

The woman gives her an odd look before her eyes widen. " _Sam?!_ "

Jazz laughs as the two women gape at each other. "Yeah Sam, Paulina is a waitress here since she didn't catch the 'big break' she was hoping for."

Paulina narrows her eyes and turns to Jazz. "What's that supposed to mean? Producers usually don't come to this town so I have to make money some way. Most actresses started as a waitress anyway."

Sam still could barely get over seeing Paulina, working! But of course, before Sam could get over it, Paulina decides to turn to her again. "So, are you here to get back with Danny?"

Sam's eyes widen, "what!? No! Of course not!"

Paulina shrugs, "that's fine. Most girls in this town go crazy for him anyway. Seeing as he's the Ghost Boy."

Sam almost forgot that he had outed himself to the world back at the end of sophomore year since everything had been pretty normal after he did. But hearing that girls loved him, made Sam's insides churn. "Look Paulina, I'm sure you're interested in Sam, but can you just get us two black coffees? Oh, and you can't tell Danny or Tucker that Sam was here." Jazz informs her.

Paulina shrugs again, "fine, I don't care either way. Those two will find out eventually."

Paulina leaves and Sam takes a large breath in and out. "Are you okay?" Jazz asks her.

Sam nods as she swallows, "yeah, it's just a shock I guess. I didn't know Danny had so many fans."

Jazz looks away from Sam. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but even though he has all these fans, he still hasn't really gotten over you."

Sam's eyes widen to the size of saucers before she leans back in her seat. "Is that just some ploy that you and Danny have been practicing since I left? Because I didn't come back to get back together with him. I came back to deal with my parents' house and I should be leaving either today or tomorrow, depending when the realtor gets back."

Jazz shakes her head, "no Sam. That's another thing I wouldn't do to you, I wouldn't try to match you guys up because I know your last relationship ended in disaster. You two just need to move on, I get that. So, I solemnly swear I won't medle." Jazz gives her a small smile, "you know, I miss having you around. You would keep me sane with Danny and Tucker, now nobody's there to keep them in check."

Sam cocks her head, "what do you mean?"

Jazz shrugs, "well, they always seem to be a little more…reckless? They wrap up ghosts easily, but it always seems to end messy. They have some new gadgets and whatever, and Danny has some new powers, but they seem to not care as much with themselves. You would remind them as they fought to be careful, but it's like, without you they're kind of a mess."

Sam looks away from Jazz. "Yeah, I remember the few ghosts they had to deal with those few times I was sick or something, and it never really ended that well. I was there of course to patch up any bruises, but I'd yell at them for a solid ten to twenty minutes in case they decided to do it again and how I wouldn't be friends with them if they got themselves seriously hurt…I guess it didn't take that long."

Jazz nods sadly before shaking her head. "I came to talk with you and to catch up with you Sam. I don't want to dwell on Danny and Tucker anymore. So how's life outside of Amity Park?"

Just as Sam opens her mouth a horrible roar came from outside just before the wall bursts open and a huge ghostly animal that's in the shape of a five headed snake slithers into the diner, hissing and snapping at people. "I forgot about ghosts." Sam says dejectedly as one of the heads turns to the table that Sam and Jazz were sitting in.

"The one day I go without the thermos." Jazz says angrily and slightly panicked as the snake quickly approaches them.

But right as the head is about to descend and kill them, a voice yells at it. A voice that Sam never thought she would again. "Hey! Long, fat, and slimy! I think you're at the wrong address! Did you try the pet store?"

The snake rears up and turns to look at whatever yelled at it, but as soon as it turned around the ghostly superhero slams into its main head and him, and the snake go toppling into the diner. When the dust clears from the snake falling Sam can't help but gasp when Danny stands up. Long gone was the slightly lanky 18 year old that Sam had fought with. Now, he was a very tall, very muscled, and very handsome. He probably stood at 6'3, with broad shoulders, thick biceps, a ripped abdomen, and muscled legs that seemed to go on for days. His white hair was in the same style, but his forelock was longer and thicker. His jumpsuit had changed as well, instead of it being mostly black with just a little white, he now had white shin high boots, and a green stripe wrapping around his leg with vertical stripes underneath it to his boots. His pants were mostly black, he had a white belt that was shaped a little like a triangle in the front and a green oval in the middle of it. He now had white stripes that started on either side of his abdomen and widen out to cover his pectorals and shoulders with a black stripe going up the middle. In the center of his chest was a green _D_ and around his collarbone were alternating black and white stripes. He wore wrist gauntlets and white gloves that went up to about the middle of his upper arm, and he seemed to be a lot more confident than when he was younger. In other words, Danny was hot and Sam couldn't help but gape. But her staring was interrupted when the snake smacks Danny across the room. Jazz is up immediately and sprinting across the diner while Sam just sits there gobsmacked at what is going on.

Danny gets up and shakes his head to get rid of the daze. Once Jazz arrives at his side he nods at her. "Get the people out of here. Tucker should be here soon to get you a thermos."

She nods once before getting up to start yelling at all of the shocked and scared people to get out of the diner. When everyone else was cleared out she grabs Sam's hand and they start to run out, but not before Danny catches a glimpse of her. "Sam?" But before he could run after her, the snake smacks him against the opposite wall.

When they're outside Sam looks around frantically. "Jazz, I gotta get outta here before Tucker shows up."

Jazz nods quickly as well. "Okay go."

Sam runs to her car and jumps in just as Tucker shows up on some sort of hovering skateboard. He didn't see her luckily, and Sam takes off as Tucker tosses Jazz a thermos and they join the fight. Danny punches the main head so the snake is knocked backward onto the pavement, but one of the heads wraps around the ghost boy and starts to squeeze, hard. But Danny goes intangible and flies right out of the snake's grip. "Okay scaly, it's your fault I'm in a bad mood so how about you hibernate for a while!" Danny fires off a ghost ray and the snake falls again so Jazz sucks it up into her thermos.

"Nice job Danny!" She praises as she reattaches the lid.

"Yeah great job dude! You didn't even need me this time!" Tucker says with a laugh.

Danny transforms back into his human form, so he was wearing a pair of light blue skinny jeans, a red t-shirt, and a completely dark blue button up shirt that was hanging open and his hair went from white to black, and his eyes from green to blue. He took a breath before he opens his eyes and both Jazz and Tucker saw the anger in them. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Jazz raises an eyebrow. "Tell you what?"

Danny stalks up to her, and that was mainly when Jazz realized that Danny really had grown up. Grown to the fact that he was towering over her. "Why did you tell me she was back?"

Tucker looks between the two. "Who? Who's back?"

"Danny, I don't know what you're talk-."

"You know damn well who I'm talking about!" Danny interrupts, furious. "Why did you tell me Sam was back!?"

Tucker's mouth falls open, "Sam's back!?"

Jazz steps away from her brother and crosses her arms over her chest. "It wasn't for me to tell you. She didn't want me to."

Danny's fury caves into sorrow and he looks to the ground. "She didn't?"

Jazz uncrosses her arms and sighs. "Look, little brother. You two left things in a really bad spot. Can you blame her? She wanted to get married and you weren't sure. You pretty much said you didn't want to. And Tucker didn't help at all, none of us did! We sat back and watched, or took sides! She felt alienated from you two, her parents practically kicked her out, and the one that she loved more than anyone in this world, rejected her."

"I didn't reject her!" Danny cries, "I just didn't want to get married! So what?!"

Jazz shakes her head. "So what? Danny, you two had been dating for four, going on five years. Sam felt like, 'I don't want to marry you Sam' was a rejection. You two shouted for hours, and then you kicked her out when you had had enough. Can you see how she doesn't want to see you?"

"If I were her I wouldn't want to see you." Tucker murmurs and Danny gives him a look.

"You're not helping Tuck!" Danny shouts.

"Danny, calm down." Jazz tells him as she puts a hand on his shoulder. "You won't help anyone if your head isn't on straight."

Danny shrugs her hand off and transforms into his ghost form. "You can't tell me what to do anymore Jazz." And with that, he flies off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone I'm so sorry for such a late update! My life has been super stressful lately and I just didn't have any desire to write. But thanks to this quarantine I finally have a few weekends to myself so I'll be trying to update/finish everything! This chapter was started a long time ago so I'm sorry if it's written badly I'm trying to improve.**

 **So any way you don't want to hear how I'm doing! I hope you enjoy this new chapter of Sam's return, and a disclaimer I don't own any of the characters they all below to the creator and writers of Danny Phantom I just add my own spin!:)**

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time Sam finally got back to her house. She had driven around for most of the afternoon after Nasty Burger, seeing as she needed to get her thoughts a little more in order before she went back to her home. With all of the memories that house would dredge up, she didn't need the current sight of Danny to disrupt her thoughts while she was there any more than they already were. She knew that tonight she would barely sleep on account of wanting to get the house done, but she couldn't help stalling on her way home from Nasty Burger. She went to the park and sat on the fountain for a while, remembering everything that had happened before driving around to all of their favorite hang out places. She even drove by Danny's house, which still had the giant metal contraption on top of it. That dug up so many memories she almost started to cry, at least that was before Daniel and Maddy showed up, then she drove away as quickly as she could since she wanted to be saved from that awkward encounter.

When it was starting to get dark she finally drove home. Now, she planned to work well into the night to have it mostly done by morning. She didn't want to talk to anyone, most importantly Danny. She might stop by Jazz's tomorrow before she leaves but that was all she wanted to have to do with that family. Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts Sam changes into a pair of grey sweatpants and a white short-sleeve shirt before tying her hair up and getting to work. She finished in the living room and kitchen before going upstairs and slowly working on her parents' room, packing up any pictures or clothes from either of them that she might want, which was minimal since she still detested totally bright colors like what their closet consisted of. When she got everything she needed and packed up everything she didn't, she moved on into her old room which was exactly the same. Her parents had thrown sheets over her furniture so she whipped it off, but as the dust cleared she gasped and fell backward as the dust settled over a shape that had previously been invisible. The figure shakes off the dust and becomes tangible again so Sam could actually see them. It was some ghost that they had never had a large fight with, it had an eyeball for a head, an apron, and a smoking pipe sticking out of its mouth. "Well well well, if it isn't the Ghost Boy's little girlfriend come back to town." He sneers.

Sam rolls her eyes and stands up so she can dust herself off. "Right, so you're an eyeball ghost or something? What are you gonna do, enter a staring contest with me, and if I lose I die? Sure, look dude I'm not in the mood, just go haunt somewhere else. And FYI, I'm not dating Danny, what is with you ghosts and insisting that we're dating?"

The ghost's arm extends until he has Sam pinned up against the wall by her neck. "Listen to me girly, I've been runnin' this joint ever since your two old bats died. Gotcha? This is my turf now and I ain't givin' it up to some stuck up human who thinks she's special since she's datin' the Ghost Boy."

"I told you I'm not dating him!" Sam protests as the ghost wraps his hand tighter around her throat so she can't breathe at all.

"Don't care, now how about you just skedaddle before I have to crush this frail little neck of yours." He laughs as he lets go of her so she falls, coughing.

"How about you _skedaddle_ before you won't have an ectoplasmic body to leave with." A voice replies as Sam looks up with spotty vision to see Danny phase through the wall and tackle the ghost down to the ground. But Sam passes out before she can see the outcome of the fight.

* * *

Hours later, Sam wakes back up with a pounding hangover-like headache and a dry throat. She rubs at her temples as she slowly sits up in her old bed, but the sight of Danny sitting at the other end of her bed, causes her to freeze. "I would've thought you'd be better at that, seeing as you bossed us around fighting ghosts all those years ago." Danny bites as soon as he sees she's awake.

Sam narrows her eyes, "right, well it's been 'all those years' and since Amity Park seems to be the only town with ghosts that go after me because I dated the Ghost Boy, I haven't had to deal with them. And I didn't go seeking them out either."

"Surprising, since you were the one to get us into this mess in the first place." Danny rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest.

Sam grits her teeth and gives into the anger. "Yes, I did tell you to go into the portal, but guess what Danny! You didn't have to go! And it was your stupidity that pushed the button and got powers! I helped you through it! I fought with you whenever I could and I saved your sorry ass more times than you care to admit because of your hero complex! So it is _so_ not my fault that we are where we are today because _you_ made all of those choices, not me! I made the best out of a shitty situation and all I got was shown to the door! So take your pity party and go bother someone that actually cares!"

Just so she could make it seem final, Sam tried to stand up to storm out of the room, but her head got heavy and her vision danced. She couldn't even say anything as she fell to the ground. But with even more anger she realized she didn't hit the ground, she didn't hit anything at all. She opened her eyes and turned to see Danny standing over her, his blue eyes help no anger, just concern, and sorrow. Sam tried to struggle out of his hold, but he must've been working out on top of all the ghost fighting because he just tightened his hold and didn't budge. "Sam, now that you've yelled at me, will you just listen?"

She knew the hatred she felt a moment ago lessened with the look alone that he gave her, but those words almost completely broke her. "Let me up Danny, now."

He shook his head and met her eyes. "I won't if you're just going to run away."

Her eyes narrowed as he at least let her stand on her own two feet, but kept his _extremely_ well-muscled arms around her. "Sam…I'm sorry."

Her jaw wanted to fall open, but she kept it firmly closed as he scanned her for a reaction. She hoped she didn't give him one so he'd suffer a little bit.

The poor guy sighed and kept talking. "I'm sorry for how we left things. Jazz brought it up today after the fight, and after I yelled at her for not telling me about you." He huffs out a sheepish laugh before continuing. "Back when we were kids, I thought I had the whole world figured out. I was _Danny Phantom_ , the half-ghost that saved the world. I had you as my girlfriend, Tucker was right there with us, and my parents weren't mad at me because I was a ghost. I thought life was perfect. And then…you got accepted to college."

She was fuming and started to fight against him again, "you're blaming this entire thing on me?! Seriously!? Just because I wanted to get out of Amity Park and do something with my life other than fighting ghosts, you're seriously going to tell me how sad and angry you are that I ruined your perfect little fantasy!? What kind of apology is that!?"

She tried to kick him but he just made his leg intangible, and that made her even angrier. "Sam would you calm down for a second so I can continue with this?" He sounded more annoyed and frustrated than angry but Sam didn't care, if she was just going to get scolded by an old flame that she left 10 years ago she wanted to get out. They struggled for a few minutes before Danny finally had enough and pinned her against the wall with all the force he could. "If you would just let me finish then you would understand why I rejected you!"

They were both breathing hard, but Sam was trying to figure out a way to get out of his hold. This was a great time to realize she should've eaten meat when she was younger because she had absolutely no muscle. All she could do was glare up at Danny and snarl, "fine, then talk. The faster you finish the faster you can leave."

She saw the hurt flash across his face but she couldn't care less. He had her _pinned to the wall_ of _her house_! That didn't even make sense! "Fine, I'll try and be quick. When you said that you were leaving, I was happy for you because I knew that that's what you wanted to do. But I knew I wasn't smart enough to follow you and even though my parents are great, they wouldn't have been able to support me going all the way out there to follow you. And I started to think about everything that could happen while you were gone. You could be attacked and I wouldn't be there, or you would meet someone out there and not want to come back. I never told you any of this because I knew you would try and stay and I didn't want you to hold back your future for a guy who could only get accepted into Amity Park Community College that fought supernatural beings every day.

"It all came to a head during graduation when they announced what college you were accepted into. Tucker was a tech geek but he only applied to APCC because I was going there. I didn't have anything to give you that a Harvard guy could, and that just made me angry. So when you proposed I blew up. I thought you were sabotaging yourself, marrying me. So I wanted to make sure that you wouldn't. Yes, there were better ways of handling it but-."

" _Better ways of handling it_!? Are you _kidding_ me! You alienated me from my best friends! You broke my heart! You humiliated me in front of our families! How could you!? For your own fucking insecurities, you wrecked me! For weeks I never went anywhere! I mourned our relationship like someone died because I spent five of the best years with my life with you and you ended it after I _proposed_! You didn't handle it at all!" Sam finally wrestled her arms away from his hold and pushed him as hard as she could, sending back enough that she felt like she could finally breathe. "And what? Did you think this big apology would get me to come crawling back? I've hated you for _10 years,_ Danny! And telling me you 'broke up with me because you were insecure' is not an explanation! It's a fucking excuse! Maybe if you had said this to me before I left it would've made a difference but right now, I'm so fucking done that I just want you out of my house!"

He stood there, having the gall to look shocked as Sam screamed at him, but she couldn't give a shit. "I said GET OUT DANIEL FENTON!" She knew using his full name was a bit of a low blow but she just wanted to sleep and get this horrible day over with.

Danny opened his mouth to talk, but she was satisfied to see that he didn't even attempt it. He quickly phased into his ghost form even though he had no use for anonymity and flew out of her window. As soon as he was gone Sam screamed to get it out of her system, before crying herself to sleep.

* * *

 **And that's the end of the second chapter of Sam's Return I actually enjoyed writing it and would love to hear any feedback about it. Yes, it's a big fight scene and there's a bit of a relationship cliffhanger. I'm a terrible person what can I say, so as always comment leave a favorite or a bookmark or whatever else you want! I'll see you all later for the next chapter!**


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